“I see why they call her a hound master now, that gals one right bitch most’a the time.”-Jessy Hannaford’s quiet observation spoken to Riley.

With Tommy’s breathing becoming more labored with every passing minute, the group quickly agreed to take him to a hospital or doctors office post haste, despite the surrounding darkness and rumble of thunder in the distance. In a flash of brilliance Heather suggested they visit a veterinarian hospital instead, since they also keep antidotes on hand for scorpion bites and the place wouldn’t be crawling with undead.

Quickly placing Tommy’s unconscious body in the wheelbarrow and rushing with him back toward town, (leaving most of their gear unsecured near the bank of the river,) The group hurriedly thumbed through the phone book of a pay phone and found “Brandi’s dog breeding and veterinary clinic” listed as being only 5 blocks away, and began the fast, noisy process of wheeling towards the place, the streaks of lightning illuminating the town like a strobe light, and occasional gusts of wind nearly capsizing the wheel barrow on them.

During the frantic flight their Heather grimly remarked how the weather is similar to tornado weather. (giving me an “ah ha!” look as I quickly reevaluated the storms ferocity; which also unfortunately resulted in a peppering of Heather’s player with M&Ms from the rest of the group.) Heather then suggested they all might want to seek shelter in a basement somewhere, after getting the antidote for Tommy.

Unfortunately for them, their reckless dash towards the vet clinic attracted the attention of several zombies and a fast zombie, that leaped from a fire escape down on to Renee, nearly tackling her to the ground. The rest of the group stood in shock, afraid to shoot, having seen the effect of friendly fire on NPC's too often by now to risk one of their own.

As they stood in horror Renee executed a perfect jujitsu throw of the zombie into the side of a dumpster and screamed at the rest to “blast it!” They readily agreed and opened fire, (Jessy on full auto >.<) Swiss cheesing the zombie, the dumpster, and sending enough ricochets around to hit Jessy in the leg and crack the stock of Renee’s shotgun.

With Jessy on the ground yelling in pain, and the moans of more zombies echoing in the wind, he bravely ordered everyone else to “run and save m’ boy, he’s got more life ahead of him then I do!” The group, after a few seconds of deliberation, ran forward with the wheel barrow, leaving Heather and her hounds to look after Jessy who was trying drag himself to the doorway of a store out of the sudden deluge of rain.

With plans to leave Tommy at the vet with Riley & Jamie, and have Renee run back with the wheelbarrow to rescue Jessy, the three tore rapidly town the street, almost capsizing the wheelbarrow as they launched it across strewn debris, broken glass, and into a overturned mailbox.

Reaching the vet in record time Riley quickly kicked in the front door and secured the lobby, before dashing to the back to root through medicine cabinets, leaving Renee and Jamie to place the boy in one of the chairs before Renee dashed back outside with the wheelbarrow into the torrential downpour, struggling to move the wheelbarrow and hold a flashlight at the same time.

Meanwhile back at the store doorway, Heather, after realizing her med-kit was left with most of their other supplies back at the campsite, decided to use her undergarments as a bandage since they were about the only article of clothing she had on that could be readily used as a compress without having to cut it apart and her belt was holding her handgun and knife.

(While not the best bandage in the world, it did help control Jessy’s blood loss and earned her a nice catch of Xp for her quick thinking, and later on her lack of undergarments became a bit of a running gag within the group.)

As soon as Jessy finished tying heathers panties around his leg he began firing off short bursts towards the incoming tide of zombies that staggered relentlessly up the street, Heather keeping her dogs close, and taking markswoman shots with her rifle, ignoring Jessy’s repeated yells to “git the hell outta here with yer mutts and forget about me!”

As the zombies drew closer it became apparent to them both they lacked enough ammo to take them all down before they get overwhelmed. Thinking quickly Heather whipped out her bowie knife, levering open a near by manhole cover and dragged Jessy over, dropping him down and urging her dogs down as well, before quickly climbing down herself and pulling the lid shut.

She sealed the manhole shut only seconds before Renee rounded the corner and saw the morass of zombies advancing towards her. Assuming Jessy and Heather were quite dead, she dropped the wheelbarrow and fled back towards the vet clinic in tears, vowing not to miss such an opportunity again. (making the rest of the players and myself go “what opportunity?”)

While this was all going down, Riley was in the back of the vet clinic, hearing the pitiful whimpers and meows of caged starving animals, and tearing through a locker of meds, not hearing the approach of the zombie secretary until its hands are around his throat. (It never occurred to the players or their characters to wonder how the animals survived for 60+ days in cages without food and water, but the reality of it was the vet clinic was being used by a near by group of survivors to store the animals for “food,” at least until they themselves got eaten by zombies a couple weeks ago.)

A brief and brutal melee then ensued, with Riley using his combat knife and commando martial arts to fight back and more or less quietly kill the zombie. (He didn’t use his guns because he didn’t want to alert any other Zombies in the area) Worn and bleeding from several scrapes and cuts Riley managed to finish off the zombie by driving it back and kicking it into the glass doors of a cabinet, and then using his foot to drive the zeds head into a shard of jagged glass protruding from the busted cabinet door.

He returned to the lobby, antidote in hand, just in time to see Renee burst through the front door, soaked to the bone, and screaming about the deaths of Jessy and Heather at the hands of a hundred zombies.

A quick cut scene back to Heather, Jessy, and her dogs, standing ankle deep in running water, a strong breeze blowing towards them from up the tunnel. (which was caused by the water up the tunnel rushing towards them and pushing the air ahead of it.) Realizing she had dropped her flashlight up top when she pried open the cover and forgot to retrieve it Heather pulled out her zippo, barely getting it to flick to life in the inky darkness. The moaning of the zombies above mixed with the eerie roaring of water rebounding off the walls, making for a dark and horrifyingly claustrophobic feel.

Fortunately for her, Jessy still had his flashlight, having shoved it down the front of his pants when he bandaged up his leg with her unmentionables, and rapidly shed some light on the subject. Wasting little time Heather slipped off Jessy’s belt and threaded it between her dogs collars for him to hold onto as a makeshift pulling harness. Thus once again mobile in the quickly rising water, Heather and her dogs, with Jessy in tow, began a mad dash down the slick quarter filled storm drain trying to outrun the impending wall of water only minutes away.

The scene now shifted back to Riley, Renee, his wife, and Tommy, Riley injecting the boy with the scorpion venom antidote, only a minute later to hear Jamie’s panicked cries of “he’s not breathing!” Quickly using his first aid knowledge, Riley and Renee began performing CPR on Tommy, the howling wind blasting the door open and sending a small maelstrom of paperwork swirling off the desk around them, the animals in the back howling in protest mournfully.

* * * * *

Will Tommy survive? Will Heather and Jessy avoid a watery grave? Will anyone discover what Renee’s missed opportunity was?

Suggested Submissions

Gain the ability to:Vote and add your ideas to submissions.
Upvote and give XP to useful comments.
Work on submissions in private or flag them for assistance.
Earn XP and gain levels that give you more site abilities.
Join a Guild in the forums or complete a Quest and level-up your experience.

Freetext

Which way is he going?

Molk Peruda is encountered by the PCs on the second day of their journey west from the salt-choked port of Quyn, as they prepare to explore the jungle.

He appears a gaunt, wolfish man, with matted, dark hair that sprouts from his head in dreadlocks, contrasting with his well-oiled, blue-black, conical beard. His eyes are hidden ebon shards beneath thick arching brows, his nose, crooked, long, and reminiscent of a snout. His mouth is a thin, dark line, his teeth unseen even when he parts his lips to speak.

His skin is the color of tallow, surprising perhaps for a renowned jungle guide, yet his natural helm of dreads and the jungle's canopy keeps the sun from bronzing his originally pale flesh. On his back are tattooed three women from the waist up, side-by-side, each resembling the other but of different ages. This is a tattoo of Molk's mother, sister, and daughter. His wife (don't bring her up to him!) was killed by marauding Qullan years ago, and appears as her own tattoo on his broad but sunken chest.

His feet shockingly are turned around 180 degrees at the ankle, facing towards his back! A curse from a pernicious shaman. Molk walks feet backwards (he's used to it) and walks backwards, forwards. This can be very disconcerting and outright creepy to the PCs as he guides them through the rainforest.

Slung from his back is an archer's quarrel of treated wood carved to resemble a stalking leopard, in his hand a re-curved composite bow of horn and sinew, with a pair of vivid, red eyes, each one painted on the opposite side of the hand-grip. In a leather sheath at his belt, hangs a falchion, its pommel adorned with a curved bird's head and beak.